Fourth Row Center

I saw Sweeney Todd on Broadway in 2005 and was surprised to learn earlier this year that Tim Burton was bringing the Stephen Sondheim musical to the screen with Johnny Depp. This is one review that I fully concur with Chuck on. Like Chuck, I was surprised that Depp can sing but he more than does justice to Sondheim's beautiful songs. Sweeney Todd is indeed quite grisly, yet imaginatively staged with with terrific performances from the entire cast. Alan Rickman, perhaps my favorite villainous actor (Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the sheriff in Robin Hood ) turns in a satisfying performance as the hated Judge Turpin. Not one for the family, nor for the faint of heart. But despite the grim subject matter and gruesome murders, Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite films of 2007. ***** out of 5

Please know two things prior to seeing Sweeney Todd, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman. First, this is a cinematic adaptation of the 1979 musical of the same name, so, there is very little dialogue that is not sung. Second, there is a lot of squirting blood. And, by a lot, I mean "a lot." With that said, it is a fabulous adaptation. I did not think that Burton and Depp would pull it off. And Burton has embedded his own visual style into the story and it works. The movie opens with Todd's return to London after being imprisoned in Australia by the local Judge Turpin. Turpin, it is told, desired to have Todd's wife, Lucy. With Todd out of the picture, Turpin could seduce Lucy. However, even that goes wrong, and Lucy commits suicide by taking arsenic. Todd discovers that Turpin has taken his daughter, Johanna, as his ward. But, Turpin's true motives are less than noble. Todd determines to take revenge by slitting the judge's throat with...

Frankly, I have not seen a creepier film in a long time. The Mist is the story of a group of people who are entrapped in a grocery store when an unexplained mist settles on the town. And, there are creatures in the mist. What I noticed was the absence of music: there is very little to be found. As the characters begin to understand their predicament, they form off into two groups. One group is led an over the top religious zealot. At first, no one listens to her, but she gradually gathers a following. The second group, the “hero” group, attempts to escape the store and hopefully the mist. The ending was unexpected. This makes three movies from Frank Darabont that I have enjoyed. And, recommend (but not for the squeamish). edit: James and I disagree with this film. Which is ok. I think that in general, horror is really hard to do without falling down into what you usually get in a horror film. I would give the film *** out of five stars. But, check out my comment on James' post.

One cannot help but make comparisons with the two films Darabont adapted from Stephen King’s work, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile . Both are great films, and neither wears the horror badge one usually associates with King. The Mist is a B-movie creature feature that brings to mind some of the best of the genre from the mid-20th century. As a character-driven monster flick, the film works on a B-movie level. Yes, there are plenty of thrills and chills, but The Mist tries hard to be more than it is, and one expects such from a writer/director like Darabont. The film suffers from something of a forced comment on the human condition, on society and religion, a difficult feat to accomplish, what with all the wonderful camp and the nail-biting, scream-inducing chills. To Darabont’s credit, he loses no time revving things up right off the bat, and he sustains the suspense to the last, horrific moment. But it’s that moment, for me, that brings this flawed but creepily entertain...

This year's thanksgiving movie was Beowulf. Or, as I care to think of it: sweet revenge for having to sit through Sense and Sensibility two years ago. I saw the movie with my still blushing bride at the Colonial Mall Cinema in Myrtle Beach. This theater had removed all but two of their 35mm projectors and had them replaced with DLP projectors. Beowulf was also shown in 3D, making this the first full length, non kiddie, 3D film that I have seen. The film is also animated in the style of Polar Express and Monster House. Robert Zemekis directs and bring long time collaborator Alan Silvestri along to compsose the film's soundtrack. Other than the story of ridding King Hrothgar of Grendel the troll, I had no idea of the story. To be honest, it took a long time for me to get into the story. The movie almost took a turn for some unintentional humor as Beowulf slays Grendal without the help of any clothing. It reminded me of the closing scene in Austin Powers where he uses strategicall...

American Gangster is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts. The film is a seventies period piece that tells the story of the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, the American Gangster. Richie Roberts is a New Jersey detective who is placed in charge of a special task force that is trying to discover the source of high quality heroine known as Blue Magic. Lucas, a driver for the Harlem Kingpin, takes over when his boss dies. He brings family members up from North Carolina to distribute the heroine, which he has obtained from a source in Vietnam. Using military transports, he is able to baffle the police, and remain an anonymous figure in the crime world. Robert's task force is unaware of Lucas, and is focusing on the usual suspects, until Lucas makes a simple mistake: he draws attention to himself. Excellent film and highly recommended to catch while it still plays on the big screen.

No Country for Old Men is a riveting and powerful thriller that recalls two the Coens’ best, Fargo and Blood Simple. It is as compelling and suspenseful a thriller as I have seen in a long time. It is near perfect as a Coen film can be, as any film can be, regardless of what viewers think about film's unexpected ending. Josh Brolin is Llewellyn Moss, a hunter who stumbles upon the bloody remains of a drug transaction gone bad, and makes off with a case full of money. He doesn't get far before Anton, a ruthless killer played to chilling effect by Javier Bardem, is hot on his trail. Moss packs his wife off to her mother’s, absconds with the cash, and that’s when things get interesting. And go terribly wrong for just about everyone in this film. The local sheriff, played by Tommy Lee Jones, is pressed with finding both Moss and Anton, following the bloody trail of murder, death and destruction left in Anton’s wake. Jones stands out in this film, delivering a strong, even-handed ...

Funny that James should post about the Russell House Theater. While in college, I worked at the Bush River Mall Cinema, a mall that died and has been replaced with a Walmart. I started working there shortly after my graduation in May of 1986 until the time that I quit for the second time (circa 1989). Besides kicking James out once for sneaking into a Theater (under the influence and guise of Stanley), the best part of working there was changing the marquees on thursday night. I nearly lost a finger on that sign, and I still bear the scar. I changed the sign while Hurricane Hugo was bearing down on South Carolina. And this sign was the inspiration for my first Computer program, ultimately leading to my current career. And, btw, I more than made it up to James who got his free share of movies during this stint, and my next one at Blockbuster Video.

I saw many great flicks at the University of South Carolina's Russell House Theater back in the 1980s. Though it was my number three venue behind the Nickelodeon and the long-defunct Bijou, there were memorable screenings there, including the work print of Blade Runner and my favorite film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . The marquee for the Russell House Theater was discovered in a pile of junk at the government surplus store on Boston Avenue in West Columbia. Photo by Tim Hill .

Blade Runner: The Final Cut, with Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy. (1982) How many versions of Blade Runner are there? Anywhere between five and seven, depending on how you’re counting and who you’re reading. It was released theatrically in 1982, and afterward rumor had it that the studio had taken final cut away from director Ridley Scott and made changes. By the late 1980s there was what was then called a “director’s cut” of the film floating around, now known as the “workprint version,” which I managed to see screened back in college. It was different from the theatrical version. It contained no titles, lacked the Harrison Ford voice over, and it there was no Vangelis soundtrack. Instead, this cut of the film had a mish-mash of sampled music which was presumably added by the director to set the mood and tone of his version of the film. I seem to recall numerous differences in how many of the scenes were cut, but it’s been ...

Rendition (2007) Starring Jake Gyllenhaal , Reese Witherspoon , Meryl Streep , Peter Sarsgaard , J.K. Simmons; directed by Gavin Hood. Witherspoon ’s Egyptian-born husband finds himself a suspect in a terrorist bombing and CIA-head Streep orders him nabbed off a commercial airline flight and shipped off to North Africa for some American-style torture. Gyllenhaal is a first-time CIA interrogation observer who comes to realize that the prisoner is innocent of any wrongdoing and acts to make amends. Witherspoon is passable as the grieving angry wife, but she has little to do. Streep dials in a terrific performance, as expected. But the real support comes from Peter Sarsgaard as a senator’s aid who tries to intervene, and Alan Arkin as the politician Sarsgaard works for. The movie stretches a bit in the middle and manages to circle itself once too often (if you see it you'll know what I mean), and I could tick off another half-dozen faults in 12 words or less. Like Gone Baby Gon...

Gone Baby Gone (2007) Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris; co-written and directed by Ben Affleck. Ben’s brother proves to be the real actor in the family, and manages a performance with some depth which holds its own against performances by Morgan Freeman as a revered Boston police legend and terrific Ed Harris as a tough Boston cop with questionable ethics. Affleck is private missing persons investigator Patrick Kenzie, affable but tough, with plenty of street contacts from whom he gathers his information. He is hired by a grieving family to assist the police in finding a missing, presumed kidnapped, child, and he and his girlfriend-slash-associate take the case, finding themselves up against more than they bargained for. The film moves forward through the first and for most of the second act with smooth predictability -- the likely suspect is introduced, a tough streetwise cop gets angry, time is running out on the missing little girl. Can she still...

Points deducted for a lazy posting last evening. Several years ago, the Ain't It Cool News web site pointed out a sound effect that was used over in over in movies. It was called the Wilhelm Scream (or just the Wilhelm), so named after the character who first had the scream applied to him. Once you see the video below, you will pick it up everytime you hear it. ABC News has a feature article on the Wilhelm.

The Star Trek 5 Effect (ST5E, for those of you in the know) is where watching parts of a movie is better than the whole film put together. So named because I hated Star Trek V when it came out, but came to like certain set pieces of the film. I have, since starting to rent movies from one of many redbox kiosks, now created what I call the Redbox Effect (RBE, again, for those of you in the know). This is when a bad movie, is not so bad, because you only paid a buck for it, and it is not due back until nine tomorrow night. Evan Almighty was influenced by the RBE, and wasn't as bad as I had thought it was going to be. The film stars Steve Carell as a newly elected congressman from Buffalo, NY. He quickly is courted to be a junior sponsor on a bill by congressman Long, played by John Goodman. We come to find out that perhaps Evan's election was somewhat rigged by Long, but that would give too much of the plot away. Besides, we don't want to see Evan the Congressman, no we wan...

Lois Maxwell, 1927-2007. Her credits include: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to a Kill.

Halfway into Death Sentence , grieving father Nick Hume, played by Kevin Bacon, leads a group of gang bangers on a rather uninspired foot chase though city streets, alleyways and a parking garage. The scene was shot in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, the location where I once shot a student film, and this was the sole reason I saw this sometimes thrilling but mostly uneven mess. Death Sentence is a riff on the Charles Bronson thriller Death Wish , but this time it’s Kevin Bacon seeking revenge against an urban drug gang for the murder of his favorite son. There are some nice moments here, and theme of what an everyman is prepared to do to avenge the brutal murder of someone he loves is worth exploring on film. But it is never completely clear how Bacon transforms himself from a white collar executive into a gun-toting vigilante. We understand his motivation is simple revenge, but this is thin and leaves more questions than it answers. There is also the problem of the police detecti...

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room! So said President Merkin Muffley to General Buck Turgidson and the Russian ambassador as they scuffled on the floor of the Pentagon War Room in Stanley Kubrick's blackly comic Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb . I never tire of seeing this twisted apocalyptic film, this cautionary tale about the absurdity of war, and I jumped at the chance to see it again on the big screen at Seattle Center as part of a Kubrick retrospective. This is one movie that leaves me not only laughing out loud in places, but giggling like a school girl in others. Peter Sellers' triple performance as Group Captain Mandrake, President Muffley (above, with the Russian ambassador), and the mysterious Dr. Strangelove (top) is among his best work on screen, but it's George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson who walks away with the big laughs. Scott (famous for his portrayal as Patton) is not widely known as a ...

Following on the heels of his successful Broadway hit "The Producers," Mel Brooks has brought his 1974 comedy "Young Frankenstein" to the stage. "Young Frankenstein" opens on Broadway in November, but we had the opportunity to see the show previewed in Seattle this week. Brooks, who picked up three Tony awards for his stage version of "The Producers," was in town for the world premiere of this latest musical extravaganza. (He is a small man, I was pleased to discover). Brooks, who wrote the songs and co-wrote the book for this show, stays close to the screenplay he and Gene Wilder crafted for the '74 film. The sets and staging are spectacular, and the show brings enough cinematic flair to the stage to make it visually arresting while at the same time "Young Frankenstein" is still very much a stage musical." Together Again for the First Time," "He Vas My Boyfriend," "Transylvania Mania," and the crowd-p...

Ah... a Siskel and Ebert moment. After reading my partner Chuck's brief review of Ratatouille I felt I must respond. It's a shame that the two of us were unable to view the movie together (the miles make it impossible); it would have resulted, no doubt, in an interesting discussion. My rebuttal begins by saying that Pixar is right on track with this bold and unique idea. Not one to repeat itself, the studio resists the temptation to beat a dead horse ( Shrek 3 , anything with penguins) and is willing to take a chance on offering a vision that is fresh and unique. Though not a perfect film, Ratatouille is warm and funny, and proffers an genuinely felt interspecies relationship between the rat Remmy and the boy Lunguini . The animation is rich and lushly realized, and the voice characterizations are vivid and compelling. Granted, the whole "rats in the kitchen" element is not for everyone, and perhaps Pixar renders them too realistic toward the end for all tast...

I have not seen many of the big summer movies this year, probably due to the number of films I saw at the Seattle Film Festival. Most of what I have seen have been small or indie movies. (I'm not going to admit I actually saw Shrek 3 .) Which brings me to Sunshine , from director Danny Boyle ( Trainspotting , 28 Days Later). It looks like a big budget summer movie (the special effects are top-notch) but feels like a much smaller, indie film. What's it about? Think Alien crossed with Deep Impact with The Core thrown in for good measure. A team of astronauts must seed the sun with a huge bomb in order to ... well, save the sun. It's going out. (Remember the "Twilight Zone" episode?) The ensemble cast led by Cillian Murphy ( Batman Begins , Red Eye ) is Earth's second try, and they run into the foreseeable challenges after discovering the remains of the previous, failed mission on the dark side of Mercury. Yep, people will start to die, one by one. But will t...

Transformers : Ok, this movie had the potential to tank big time. However, seeing it on a DLP screen was awesome. But, for big time action, it delivered. The only thing that bothered me was how hot they made an 11th grade girl. Didn't really think about the age until later and then went "ewww." Personally, I think they could have toned the Maxim down and just made the love interest because I think this could be a deal breaker for some pre-teens who want to see this. Ratatouille: It had to happen: this dish was missing something. It was not the same class of story that Pixar is known for. Near the end, I thought it was going to finally kick in, but, it never did. The kids loved it. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix : Perhaps my third favorite in the series. This movie starts off dark and pretty much stays there. I started remembering more of the book as the film progressed, so there were not many surprises. Was it great? No, but, then again, none of the Potter film...

Earlier I have confessed my penchant for "apocalyptic" style movies. These movies deal with the not too distant future, or even present day, that has somehow been changed (war, flood, famine, zombie) and the survivors must work out how they will adapt. Another favorite vehicle would have to be time travel. "Deja Vu" stars Denzel Washington and was directed by Tony Scott. Washington plays Doug Carlin, an ATF official investigating the bombing of a New Orleans ferry that kills over five hundred passengers. He is recruited by the FBI to participate in an experimental use of technology that allows investigators to peer back in time four days. Carlin uses the technology to investigate the death of Claire Kuchever, who Carlin believes was murdered by the bomber of the ferry. One of the time travel themes explored is that the past can not really be changed. It is as if "God has decided" and no matter how the characters try to affect the past, the will end up chan...

The past few weeks has been a good one at the Seattle International Film Festival, with some fantastic indie flicks like Cashback , a mediocre Japanese ghost story called Retribution , a chilling and cautionary tale about a nuclear power plant accident called The Cloud , a Spanish language film from director Antonio Banderas, a world premiere documentary from the producers of March of the Penguins called Arctic Tale , and a few classics enjoyed on the big screen. From Germany, The Cloud is an arresting film about a town impacted by a meltdown at a nearby nuclear power plant. Unlike The China Syndrome , which dealt with a near-meltdown from inside the plant, The Cloud focuses on a teenage girl separated from her family who is irradiated in the disaster. Finding she has lost everything, she is rescued from her dismal existence in a hospital ward by a distant aunt and a fellow student with whom she has fallen in love. The film is brutally honest in its treatment of the tragedy, and com...

One of the most compelling performances I have seen thus far at the Seattle Film Festival is given by the multi-talented Christopher Plummer in The Man in the Chair . The movie concerns a high school student who befriends bitter, retired filmmaker Flash Madden (Christopher Plummer) and enlists his aid in making a student film for a scholarship competition. Flash and a long-retired screenwriter, played by M. Emmet Walsh, must exorcise their own demons before becoming fully involved with the student project, a movie about neglect in nursing homes. A story about youth, age, purpose and usefulness, Chair boldly compares neglected residents of nursing home with dogs waiting to be euthanized at the animal control shelter. The message here is a bit heavy-handed at times, but within the dramatic framework of the story it manages to work. Plummer carries the film with his complex, moving performance, one director Michael Schroeder already predicts will generate Oscar buzz when Chair goes into...

One of the most anticipated films we viewed at the Seattle Film Festival has been Paris Je t'aime , a delightful stack of greeting cards from the city of lights. Eighteen directors contributed to the film, including the Coen brothers, screenwriter turned director Richard LaGravenese , Tom Tykwer ( Run, Lola, Run ) , Alexander Payne ( About Schmidt, Election ), Gurinder Chadha ( Bend it Like Beckham ), Alfonso Cuarón ( Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkanban ), Walter Salles ( Dark Water ) and horror master Wes Craven. The vignette concept works here better than in similar efforts that I've seen, mainly due to the common theme that threads its way through the shorts. There is a unity and cohesiveness present among these stories about love which makes watching this film a true joy. The cast, which includes Nick Nolte , Natalie Portman , Gerard Depardieu , Barbet Schroeder, Juliette Binoche , Miranda Richardson, Maggie Gyllenhaal , Bob Hoskins , Elijah Wood, Ben Gazzara...

I was trying to pull together five sumer films that, if originally released today, would help make one great summer. 1. Star Wars: Exploding onto America in a year when gasoline was high, disillusionment with the government was even higher and an our part in an unpopular war had just concluded. This was the film that redefined cinematic science fiction and gave America her very own mythology. 2. Aliens: James Cameron took the premise of one Alien wiping out a crew of unarmed miners and turned it into a hive of aliens wiping out two squads of heavily armed marines. Underneath this was a subtext of a mother daughter relationship with a final show down with the biggest mother of all. 3. Jaws: Memorable characters (Quint, Brody and Hooper) and memorable lines ("Smile you son of a BOOM") combined with a sinking boat and a twenty five foot great white shark equaled a movie that kept me out of the ocean for years. 4. Terminator 2: This might be the role that Arnold will be remembere...

I think what Charles meant to write down in his notes under "5" but forgot to do because he was not taking notes and was too preoccupied dreaming of a Star Wars re-release in order to do so, was Raiders of the Lost Ark . 5. Leave it to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to reinvent the adventure genre. Raiders had it all -- an unlikely hero, a gutsy girlfriend , exotic locales, a grand quest, high adventure, sinister villains , close escapes, mystery and intrigue, Nazis , great fight sequences, fabulous set pieces and a sense of humor. Oh -- and did I mention it had Harrison Ford at the top of his game? And most importantly, it was something many of us had never seen before, or something a good many more had not seen in very long time. Raiders rounds out the top five perfect summer movies.

In the movie year, nothing spells more promise of hope than the Summer season. It also delivers the most disappointments when the hype extends a viewers expectations far beyond what the movie is capable of delivering. So far, the summer of 2007 has not been spectacular. Not bad, just not memorable. The signature scene in Spiderman 2 was the subway train fight. Collapsing unconscious in the subway car, and mask completely gone, the citizens of New York see Spiderman for who he really is. Not the menace the papers were making him out to be, but just a guy trying to help. Spiderman 3 never built on this. Visually, it looked great, but it was missing some of the heart that made the first two films the best in Comic Book Cinema. Pirates of the Caribbean was an unexpected surprise a few summers ago. Really, a movie based on a ride? It actually gave some street credit for the Haunted Mansion movie (for the record, I still have not seen that film). The second movie never appealed to me. O...

Death at a Funeral , a British comedy from director Frank Oz, puts the 'fun' back into funeral. In this classically structured farce, a family gathering at a country house for the funeral of its patriarch experiences a series of mix-ups and misunderstandings which culminate into a disastrous send-off for the old man. Oz, who was born in England, is no stranger to comedy, having directed Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, What About Bob? and Housesitter , among others. In Funeral , he expertly executes the pacing and timing of this farce in the tradition of the great Ealing comedies, and the results are hilarious. Oz presented his film to an audience at the Seattle Film Festival this week. He said was pleased that our audience managed to "lose control" of ourselves during the film's climax, even though we managed to laugh through several lines of dialogue. "You missed several key lines because you were laughing," Oz said, "but you were ...

Today we attended four films at the Seattle International Film Festival, starting with a mediocre film at the Secret Cinema before moving on to the Neptune Theater for the rest of the day. In Rescue Dawn, the true story of Dieter Dangler, director Werner Hertzog weaves a tense, nail-biting story of a US Navy airman shot down in Laos during the Vietnam conflict. Dangler is captured and imprisoned and quickly sets about planning an escape. Deplorable conditions in the camp are made worse by famine, and when the camp guards begin running out of food and plot to kill their prisoners, Dangler acts. Christian Bale is riveting as Dangler in a performance marked by the actor's dramatic weight loss in the third act. (Bale also shed 60 pounds for 2004's The Machinist .) We spent the evening enjoying two films from France: the anticipated comedy My Best Friend from director Patrice Laconte and the thriller Them , which was at times so creepy that people were literally jumping out of the...

On my first day at the Seattle International Film Festival I jumped right in with a dark comedy from the Netherlands called Waiter . Described as being Charlie Kaufman-esque, with overtones of The Purple Rose of Cairo thrown in for good measure, this black comedy follows the tedious life of Edgar, a beleaguered waiter who is put upon by his abusive customers, his ailing wife, his unpredictable girlfriend, his unreliable co-worker, and his grossly inconsiderate neighbors (who happen to be with the mob), and generally by life itself. Edgar's existence is miserable, and apparently more self-aware than we realize, he storms into the home of the film's screenwriter demanding a change of luck and better lines. The writer complies, but to a point. The writer's girlfriend has other ideas, and tinkers with the film's screenplay resulting in not only chaos but a near revolt from other characters in the film-within-a-film. Waiter was dark without becoming bleak, and at times upro...

The Seattle International Film Festival is screening more than 400 films this year in seven venues across Seattle, requiring the avid festival-goer to navigate from Capital Hill to Downtown to the University District to Seattle Center to the East Side. There are plenty of movies to see, and a good deal of time is spent moving from place to place or standing in line. After many years attending the film festival I have developed something of a Film Festival Survivor Kit. A sampling of the items I will always have with me: The Festival Guide. This indispensable volume provides not only information about the festival and its venues, but details on each film showcased. And during the occasional waiting period it's nice to have something to read. Kleenex and lozenges. I have a cold. Mints. Sunglasses, my Sundance pocket umbrella. Standing in line for good seats outside the Egyptian or Neptune Theaters (one needs to arrive early to ensure one is comfortably settled in at fourth row center...

I like survival stories in a world changed by a cataclysmic event. It is what has always drawn me to movies such as Romero's Dead Films. Dawn of the Dead is not the best acted film in the world, it is not even the best written film. But the thought of living in a ruined world populated by the Dead fascinates me. 28 Weeks Later , the sequel to 28 Days Later, starts off running. Literally. The Zombies of 28 are a different breed than Romero's. They are the result of an infection known as the Rage Virus. Once bitten(the virus is transmitted by saliva or blood), a person becomes infected in a matter of seconds. Also, unlike Romero, they do not shamble along. They run. And they run fast. But apparently, if you cut off (or consume) the food supply, they eventually starve to death and die. And that is what has happened. The virus was contained to England, and the US has set up a green zone where repatriation can begin for Britons lucky enough to be out of the country when the virus...

Its title taken from The Who song of the same name, Reign Over Me is movie about the fallout from 9/11, its impact on a man who lost his family and then himself. Adam Sandler heads the cast in this absorbing drama from which the trailers manage to show nearly all of the film’s laughs. Though there is some comic relief here and there, this film is primarily about one man’s struggle with deep personal pain. Sandler is winning as this oddly broken man who searches for solace in the company of his former college roommate, a hen-pecked dentist played by Don Cheadle. The critical response to Sandler's dramatic roles have been mixed, but I frankly prefer his roles in Spanglish and Punch-Drunk Love to his straight comic vehicles. Cheadle and Sandler maintain an onscreen rapport which manages to rise above the film's flaws. Liv Tyler, Robert Klein, and Jada Pinkett Smith round out the cast. *** 1/2 (out of 5 stars)

I have been looking forward to 300. Not because I have read the graphic novel, but because I did not see "Sin City" on the big screen. I regretted that when I watched the DVD. What I liked about SC was that it transferred a comic book to the big screen the way in which "Dick Tracy" tried to do and, utltimately, failed. I did not think that SC was a very good film, but it had style. Watching the trailer for 300 reminded me of SC. Of course, both films are from genre writer/artist Frank Miller. Even though the entire film looked CG-ish, that was the point. It had a style that was not realistic, but was very comic-booky. A complaint one friend had was that the Spartans did wear armor, where in the movie they are all bare chested. For me, I thought the actors looked fantastic. Even the various Persians looked incredible. Believe me, I am sure that was not the only historical inaccuracy. This movie was fun. Over blown, over dramatic, over stylized, and taking itself way ...

NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY - 79TH AWARDS The following are our picks for the 79th Annual Academy Awards: Best motion picture of the year Chuck: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA James: LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE Performance by an actor in a leading role Chuck: Will Smith - THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS James: Peter O’Toole - VENUS (Forest Whitacker is the man to beat) Performance by an actor in a supporting role Chuck & James: Alan Arkin - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE Performance by an actress in a leading role Chuck & James: Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN Performance by an actress in a supporting role Chuck: Rinko Kikuchi – BABEL James: Adriana Barraza - BABEL Best animated feature film of the year Chuck & James: CARS Achievement in art direction Chuck: PAN'S LABYRINTH James: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST Achievement in cinematography Chuck & James: PAN'S LABYRINTH Achievement in costume design Chuck & James: THE QUEEN Achievement in directing Chuck: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA James: THE ...

Two of last year’s most critically acclaimed films are structured around written accounts of the events portrayed in the films, providing voiceover narration which adds perspective to the motivations of the characters on the screen. Excellent performances mark Notes on a Scandal , a film rich in story and character about two school teachers caught up in scandal. Judi Dench delivers a chilling performance as a lonely battleaxe who blackmails her young colleague (Cate Blanchett) whom she discovers is having an affair with a student. Though Dench’s Barbara is scheming and vindictive, she is also at times sympathetic, a complex character portrayed with biting authenticity. The voiceover narration from Barbara’s diary (the "notes") allow the audience to probe the depths of Barbara’s psyche in a way sheer visuals and dialogue could not. Dench will surely give Helen Mirren ( The Queen ) a run for her money when the Oscars are handed out next week. In Letters from Iwo Jima (a compan...

Venus is less a May-December romance than it is a love story: tender, often funny, sometimes shocking, and heart-wrenchingly melancholy without being overly sentimental. Peter O'Toole plays an aging actor who falls for the twenty-something great-niece of a friend, and the result is a film punctuated with an Oscar-worthy performance from one of our greatest living actors. Venus marks O'Toole's eighth Academy Award nomination. Nominated performances past, in films as diverse and memorable as Lawrence of Arabia , Becket , The Lion in Winter and My Favorite Year (one of my favorite films) have yet to see him honored as Best Actor by the Academy. Venus proves that at 74, O'Toole is at the top of his craft. One should hope that this is his year.

It's that time of year when each new movie that opened late last year are heralded with many accolades as this years Academy Award nominations take shape. I had been tracking this movie for some time and immediately made plans to redeem my "Customer Loyalty" voucher. The film takes place in Spain, 1944. Ophelia, the heroine of the story, travels with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather. The stepfather is a decidedly cruel Captain in charge of Franco's forces to root out Communist resistance that still prevails in the mountainside. The stepfather could care less about Ophelia, and has more concern for his yet unborn son being carried by her mother. Ophelia is a dreamer, using fairy tales to escape the death of her real father, the sudden move to the country side, her stepfather and life. She comes face to face with a Faun who reveals to her that, in actuality, Ophelia is the daughter of a great king. Upon proving that she is not mortal, she may pass thr...

It’s a very rare thing for me to go to a movie I know nothing about, but that’s what I did last Saturday night based simply on the title and the lobby poster. Pan’s Labyrinth turned out to be one of those rare impulses that paid off. I really liked Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro’s 2001 Spanish-language film The Devil’s Backbone , and his latest subtitled effort is just as enthralling as Backbone , but far darker and more imaginative. Set in the 1940’s around the time of the Spanish Civil War, a young girl is removed with her expectant mother to her cruel stepfather’s military outpost where her life descends into a maelstrom of intrigue, despair and tragedy, both within the context of her new life with the embattled Captain and into her (imagined?) decent through a labyrinth and into an underworld waiting for the return of its lost princess. There Ophelia encounters the faun Pan, who tells her that she is the long-awaited princess. Pan gives her a book of blank pages into which w...

I have to admit that I was not too enthusiastic about another Rocky picture. The joke has been that Stallone does not know when to stop. ( Rambo III , anyone?) It’s been quite some time since the last really good Rocky film (that would be the third, released in 1982, which I saw in the theater twice). And following a mediocre fourth outing (Rocky versus the Russian) and an utterly forgettable Rocky V , Rocky VI just did not hold much appeal for me. But I have to say that it was good to reconnect with Rocky Balboa after all of these years. Balboa, now in his fifties, has lost his wife to cancer and spends his time telling boxing stories to patrons in his small Italian restaurant. It seems to be a sad existence compared with Rocky’s past glories, but he is content with what his life has become. That is, until he is coerced into going back into the ring just one more time. But this movie is not about the fight, not about who wins. It’s about a man dealing with grief and desiring to conne...